A cornerstone of Welsh folklore, this new edition of the Mabinogion features Lady Charlotte Guest's original English translation of the medieval collection of Arthurian legends and Celtic myths. Sourced from Lady Guest's 1877 English translation, this new edition of the Mabinogion features twelve tales of heroes, gods, and magical creatures in an exciting odyssey of early medieval literature. It includes the Four Branches of the Mabinogi and some of the first legends of King Arthur in a brilliant treasury of time-honoured tales. This volume offers a unique glimpse into the rich history of the ancient Welsh text, presenting six essays providing context and insight into the longevity of these enduring tales. Alongside the marvellous Celtic stories are Lady Guest's own notes on the text, as well as extracts and entries from her journals.

The four stories that make up the Mabinogi, along with three additional tales from the same tradition, form this collection and compose the core of the ancient Welsh mythological cycle. Included are only those stories that have remained unadulterated by the influence of the French Arthurian romances, providing a rare, authentic selection of the finest works in medieval Celtic literature. This landmark edition translated by Patrick K. Ford is a literary achievement of the highest order.

This book is a result of an effort made by us towards making a contribution to the preservation and repair of original classic literature. In an attempt to preserve, improve and recreate the original content, we have worked towards: 1. Type-setting & Reformatting: The complete work has been re-designed via professional layout, formatting and type-setting tools to re-create the same edition with rich typography, graphics, high quality images, and table elements, giving our readers the feel of holding a 'fresh and newly' reprinted and/or revised edition, as opposed to other scanned & printed (Optical Character Recognition - OCR) reproductions. 2. Correction of imperfections: As the work was re-created from the scratch, therefore, it was vetted to rectify certain conventional norms with regard to typographical mistakes, hyphenations, punctuations, blurred images, missing content/pages, and/or other related subject matters, upon our consideration. Every attempt was made to rectify the imperfections related to omitted constructs in the original edition via other references. However, a few of such imperfections which could not be rectified due to intentional\unintentional omission of content in the original edition, were inherited and preserved from the original work to maintain the authenticity and construct, relevant to the work. We believe that this work holds historical, cultural and/or intellectual importance in the literary works community, therefore despite the oddities, we accounted the work for print as a part of our continuing effort towards preservation of literary work and our contribution towards the development of the society as a whole, driven by our beliefs. We are grateful to our readers for putting their faith in us and accepting our imperfections with regard to preservation of the historical content. HAPPY READING!

The complete collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. Drawing on pre-Christian Celtic mythology-with some of the themes having been dated back to the early Iron Age-this marvelous compendium of tales contains some of the oldest European folklore in existence. The source material-the Red Book of Hergest, or Llyfr Goch Hergest, first appeared around 1382 as a complete document, although older manuscript fragments have been found. The first volume of the Mabinogion focuses on three Welsh versions of the Arthurian Tales, called the Three Romances (Y Tair Rhamant). It contains much material not found in any other version of the Arthurian legend, and scholars hold that this was the original legend upon which all others were based. The second volume contains a number of stories from Welsh legend, dating from well before medieval times, and includes the tales of Kilhwch and Olwen-from which other Arthurian traditions were drawn. Also included is the Dream of Maxen Wledig-which tells of the Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus who, as a commander in Roman-occupied Britain, assembled a Celtic army and assumed the title of Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. The third volume focuses on the character of Pryderi fab Pwyll, king of Dyfed, and contains the Four Branches of the Mabinogi-which tell of his parents, birth, marriage, conflict, adventures, and ultimate tragedy. This volume contains the oldest works of Welsh mythology. This new edition has been completely reset, but contains all the wonderful original artwork which appeared in the famous 1902 edition assembled by Welsh scholar Owen Edwards. From the introduction: "Some of the Mabinogion [has] been reconstructed in Norman and Crusading times, but they contain reminiscences of a more distant period, often but half understood by the later story-teller. Among these are "The Dream of Rhonabwy," "The Lady of the Fountain," and "Peredur the son of Evrawc"-the three which happen to come first in the Red Book. These are Christian, but with distant glimpses of Celtic heathenism. The adventures are all grouped around Arthur and his knights; and a kind of connection is given to the three tales by the presence of Owen and his mysterious ravens. "Others, especially the four Mabinogion properly so called and the Tale of Lludd and Llevelys, are far older; they are older than Christianity, and older than Arthur . . .[they are] all in a perfectly pagan atmosphere, neither the introduction of Christianity nor the growth of chivalry having affected them to any extent." CONTENTS VOLUME I Introduction The Lady of the Fountain Peredur the Son of Evrawc The Dream of Rhonabwy VOLUME II Introduction Geraint the Son of Erbin Kilhwch and Olwen or the Twrch Trwyth The Dream of Maxen Wledig VOLUME III Introduction Pwyll Prince of Dyved Branwen the Daughter of Llyr Manawyddan the Son of Llyr Math the Son of Mathonwy Here Is the Story of Lludd and Llevelys Taliesin

The remarkable biography of a mother of ten who stepped up to run her late husband’s ironworks in Victorian Wales. When impoverished aristocrat Lady Charlotte Bertie married wealthy Welsh ironmaster John Guest of Dowlais in 1833, her relatives looked on with dismay. Yet despite their vast difference of background and age, over their nineteen-year long marriage husband and wife enjoyed great happiness and much adventure. There would be ten children, and while John built up an immense commercial empire, Charlotte championed Welsh culture. Crucially, she taught herself John’s business from the inside. Over the years, she made the keenest observation of iron production, the fluctuations of the trade, and the engineering innovations. When John died in 1852, she was therefore uniquely placed to succeed him as head of the works—a remarkable position for a Victorian woman. She endeavored to introduce reforms, but also—rather to her dismay—had to weather a potentially destructive strike. But success came at a price. With her star seemingly in the ascendant, Lady Charlotte suddenly chose to abandon all, leave Wales, and marry her sons’ tutor. This book traces the ardent, creative years of her first marriage, explores her determination to preserve John’s legacy as a widow, and observes her growing devotion to the scholarly Charles Schreiber.

"Lady Charlotte's translation of the Mabinogion opens a window into several important nineteenth-century intellectual issues. It sheds light on the interrelationships among antiquarianism, philosophy, folklore collection, and children's literature that underlie the works of such seminal creators of the Victorian fairy tale as the Brothers Grimm.".

The purpose of this collection, which was first published in 1996, is to provide both an overview of the major critical approaches to the Four Branches of the Mabinogi and a selection of the best essays dealing with them. The essays examine the origins of the Mabinogion, comparative analyses, and structural and thematic interpretations. This book is ideal for students of literature and Medieval studies.

The retelling of the epic Welsh myth that is “certainly among the top 5 fantasy series of the twentieth century” (sfsite.com). The Mabinogion is to Welsh mythology what the tales of Zeus, Hera, and Apollo are to Greek myth. these tales constitute a powerful work of the imagination, ranking with Tokien’s Lord of the Rings novels and T.H. White’s The Once and Future King. Evangeline Walton’s compelling rendition of these classic, thrilling stories of magic, betrayal, lost love, and bitter retribution include the encounter between Prince Pwyll and Arawn, the God of Death, which Pwyll survives by agreeing to kill the one man that Death cannot fell, and the tale of bran the blessed and his family’s epic struggle for the throne. The Mabinogion is internationally recognized as the world’s finest arc of Celtic mythology; Walton’s vivid retelling introduces an ancient world of gods and monsters, heroes, kings and quests, making accessible one of the greatest fantasy sagas of all time. “These books are not only the best fantasies of the twentieth century, but also great works of fiction. They are actual retellings of diverse legends of the Mabinogion in novel form . . . dealing with Good and Evil . . . and the nature of love.” —The Saturday Review (UK) “Magnificently conceived . . . persuasive and powerful . . . the product of keenly imaginative and well disciplined mind.” —August Derleth “Evangeline Watson’s Mabinogion books remain the benchmark against which any future retellings of the stories must be measured.” —Diana L. Paxson

The Mabinogion consists of the earliest prose literature in Great Britain, the manuscripts of which originate in 12th century Welsh, with some dating earlier, to the oral tradition of the Middle Ages. Many of the stories in the Mabinogion would become famous anew thanks to the efforts of the translator. Rendered in modern English, the narratives of an era long departed reflect the time ? events such as war, the idea of chivalric romance, and the prevalence of sorcery and mystical goings on are common devices in the stories. Much of what is here was passed onto other, later authors ? the notion of the Medieval era as one laden with strange beasts, magic, and valiant combat originates with tales like those in the Mabinogion. This edition of the ancient stories was translated by Lady Charlotte Guest, an English aristocrat who was most famous for this work. Accomplished with languages from a young age, she gathered from obscure archives the manuscripts, arranged and presented them in modern English.